All That Remains

Summary: Amelia, a young woman who once thought herself damaged after an accident leaving her with a prosthetic arm and leg, realizes her imperfections are an advantage in this post-apocalyptic world.

All That Remains

It was a phrase that Amelia Brown heard a lot in
the days following the accident. “All that remains”, the accident investigation
officers kept saying to others, as she lay in the hospital. All that remains of
her car, all that remains of the store front. It seemed like that phrase was
contagious, because the doctors and nurses started saying it too. “All that
remains of your leg, Amelia,” they’d say in soft, soothing tones. “All that
remains of your arm,” they’d add. As if the parts that were left was a negative
thing, she always thought. She had hit one of them. It had appeared out of nowhere, and she’d swerved, but it
still hit her, and then she hit the storefront. At first she felt awful about
it, but not anymore. Not when people finally started to realize what they were.

Since the accident, Amelia
Brown had felt self-conscious about herself. She still wasn’t used to seeing
smooth, hard, shiny material where there was once soft, matte skin. Her
prosthetic leg and arm on her left side hadn’t taken all that long to get used
to, even though sometimes it chafed and itched when she first put them on. The
thing that almost bothered her more was that she was, or rather had been,
left handed, so she had to train herself to write with her right hand now. That
still kind of irked her, because the smooth, flowing handwriting of her former
self was now jagged and jumpy and looked like something a young child would do
instead of a woman in her mid-thirties.

But that was almost six months ago now. Amelia laughed at the thought that she
had been irritated by her unruly penmanship. That was the least of her worries
now. And she wasn’t self-conscious about her fake limbs anymore either. In
fact, she was grateful. Never in a million years would she have thought that
surviving a car accident and coming away with new body parts made of special
plastics and stainless steel would be a blessing, rather than a curse.

But here she was, sitting on top of an apartment rooftop, screwing on a new
hand. She was now a weapon, if she wanted to be. And in this new world, always
having a weapon was the only way you could even hope to survive. People
who didn’t carry weapons were just fooling themselves. Her mother’s face rose
in her mind, unbidden, with her brown hair tied back in it’s usual two side
twists and her dimpled smile. She focused on putting on her hand. She didn’t
want to think about her mother, and her mother’s insistence on not using
weapons. She didn’t want to think about where that got her.

She placed her regular hand in the satchel that lay slung across her body,
hanging at her hip. It clattered against the other interchangeable bits and
pieces of her that she could use depending on the circumstances – different leg
attachments for hiking, running, climbing. And different hands, or at least
things she could put on in place of her hand. Inside the bag was an
assortment of knives, lock picks, needles, and even one that was an axe head.
She hadn’t thought that that would ever come in, she winced at the
unintentional pun, handy, but realized it was useful for breaking through
stubborn wooden doors, or boarded up windows. There were a lot of
those these days.

But at the moment she was putting on her telescope hand. With her living hand,
as she liked to call it, she extended the telescope to its furthest
point and lifted it to her eye, squinting with the other instinctively. A cold
wind blew across the top of the building and she shivered pulling the shawl
she’d thrown over her shoulders around her a bit tighter.

Amelia was so focused on what she was looking at, across the ruins of the city,
with jagged remains of buildings sticking up like broken, rotted teeth that she
didn’t hear the person who had come up behind her.

Chapters

Nate_L:
This story is amazing. The style, the description, it all drags you in. The characters are mostly the well known characters from King Arthur. There's Merlin, the sword: Excalibur. I recommend reading this through, at least a little, as it's a very satisfying read. I added it to my reading list af...

Morgan-Leigh Nortje:
A storyline and plot not unlike something George R R Martin would have produced, only with far less tragedy. The stunning story of a young princess who goes into hiding and takes on an epic journey to save her father and her kingdom. With characters that you feel compelled to love and a plot that...

Barbara Ponder:
This book is aimed at teenagers, however the style and content caught my attention and it is a long time since I was a teenager. Intriguing and enlightening novel I hope there will be a sequel soon.

MegaRogueLegend666:
I love this story so much. It's impossible to describe my excitement with each new chapter in words. The author has such a good writing style, very good descriptions of the fighting and character descriptions/emotions. the plot is also amazing! This fanfic could be a side anime show or novel ......

ernbelle:
When I first started this story I was a little unsettled by all of the information that appears in the prologue, and wasn't sure if I would continue. However, I am very glad I did. The plot was very well thought out and really interesting. There were not any page breaks or markers to acknowledge ...

Sandra Leigh:
excellent story. Lots of classic fairy tale elements with a fresh spin. Very much looking forward to the sequel. However, there are a number of typos and minor awkward sentences. I occasionally work for my publisher as an editor and would not mind editing this for you. Feel free to contact m...

John Reed:
Seadrias masterfully captures the impressiveness and complex scope that a science fiction novel should provide while carefully crafting an entire universe that will leave a reader in awe from start to finish. The only flaw I could find is that I wish I could have read more. This book is certainly...

summerstone:
Seriously this is one of the best books I've ever read. The plot is intriguing, I love the narrative style. Its very descriptive and unique, with minimal cliches. It makes for a great read and the sequels are amazing. Totally worth reading. ^^ That's me trying to be professional. But in all hones...

Deleted User:
This is a very clever story in the style of 19th century (and turn of the century) Gothic writing, very reminiscent of Stevenson's The Body Snatchers or even of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (less so of Frankenstein itself, since the author is more minimalist than Shelley's florid, Romantic rhetoric). ...